The present invention generally relates to artificial snow making, and more particularly, to methods and devices for making snow.
In general, artificial snow-making involves atomizing a spray of water with a jet of air to create a plume of very fine water droplets which nucleate and form snow as the plume drops to earth under freezing temperature conditions. Water and air may be brought separately up a tower in inner and outer, concentric, spaced apart conduits. The air may flow through the inner conduit passageway and the water through the annular passageway formed between the conduits. As a result, the water stream functions to insulate the air stream.
The water stream is supplied under pressure to a point of discharge above ground level and adjacent to a top end of a tower where it is discharged through a nozzle into the ambient freezing atmosphere in the form of the spray. The spray is preferably a high velocity spray of discrete water particles. Air is also supplied under pressure to a second point of discharge at the top of the tower where it is discharged through an orifice to form a jet of air which is directed into the water spray thereby forming a plume of atomized or nucleated water. This atomized water forms seed crystals in a freezing atmosphere, and through the dwell time of the long fall from the top of the tower to the ground, forms snow.
One drawback to this type of system is that snow can only be made at specific ambient temperature conditions for a given pressurized water supply and a given pressurized air supply. When the ambient temperature changes from the specific ambient temperature the system operates with decreased efficiency of does not operate at all to produce snow.
Therefore, a need exists for snow making methods and devices to efficiently make snow over a range of ambient temperature conditions.
The present invention provides, in a first aspect, a method for making snow over a range of ambient temperatures in which the method includes discharging a supply of pressurized water in ambient air, discharging a supply of pressurized air into the discharged supply of pressurized water, and controlling the discharge of the supply of the pressurized water and/or the supply of the pressurized air to control a ratio of water to air.
The present invention provides, in a second aspect, a method for making snow. The method includes providing a discharge unit having a plurality of fluid discharge nozzles, and controlling discharge of a supply of pressurized water and a supply of pressurized air from the plurality of fluid discharge nozzles.
The present invention provides, in a third aspect, a device for making snow. The device includes a discharge unit having a plurality of discharge nozzles and a control mechanism for controlling a supply of pressurized water and a supply of pressurized air to the plurality of discharge nozzles.